Ostrich with pepper brandy sauce

Henrie Geyser

The international swing towards ostrich meat is growing almost daily and it's easy to understand — the meat is tasty, healthy and it's much cheaper than beef.

If you enjoy ostrich meat, do yourself a favour and get a copy of super little cookery brochure produced by the Klein Karoo ostrich meat producers — it contains a number of really interesting dishes and it's written in easy to follow style.

Their steak recipes are particularly good and the booklet explains in detail how to prepare and cook ostrich steaks to get the maximum flavour out of it.

The one thing to remember when working with ostrich steak is that you must never overcook it because then it becomes like ostrich biltong. The rule of thumb is two minutes per side for rare, three minutes per side for medium-rare and four minutes per side for medium. But bear in mind, this depends on the thickness of the meat and on the cooking temperatures.

One of my favourite recipes in the booklet is for fillet with green peppercorn and brandy sauce.

To serve four portions you need:

# 4 fillet steaks

# 1 tablespoon olive oil

# Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

# 2 cups of cream

# 3 tbsp canned green peppercorns, rinsed

# 1 cup beef stock

# 1⁄2 cup brandy

# Salt and black pepper

Instructions:

To prepare the steak heat a pan until smoking hot. Brush steaks with olive oil and fry steaks until done as preferred.

Set aside, cover and let it rest for three to four minutes.

To make the sauce pour in the cream and peppercorns and bring to a gentle simmer.

Continue stirring and cook until reduced to about one cup.

Add beef stock and brandy and cook until thickened.

Add salt and black pepper

Place steaks on warm plate, spoon over the sauce and serve immediately.